“Neither of us, dear Georgiana, would consent to survive the ruin of
    the Church.  You would plunge a poisoned pin into your heart, and I
    should swallow the leaf of a sermon dipped in hydro-cyanic acid.”

In October, after an alarming attack of breathlessness and giddiness, he returned to London.  In Green Street he was happy in the proximity and skill of his son-in-law, Dr. Holland, and “a suite of rooms perfectly fitted up for illness and death.”  This phrase occurs in the last of his published letters, dated the 7th of November 1844.  It was now pronounced that his disease was water on the chest, caused by an unsuspected affection of the heart.  He was entirely confined to his bed, perfectly aware of his condition, and keenly grateful for the kindness and sympathy of friends.  His daughter writes:—­

“My father died at peace with himself and with all the world; anxious, to the last, to promote the comfort and happiness of others.  He sent messages of kindness and forgiveness to the few he thought had injured him.  Almost his last act was, bestowing a small living of L120 per annum on a poor, worthy, and friendless clergyman, who had lived a long life of struggle with poverty on L40 per annum.  Full of happiness and gratitude, the clergyman entreated he might be allowed to see my father; but the latter so dreaded any agitation that he most unwillingly consented, saying, ’Then he must not thank me; I am too weak to bear it.’  He entered,—­my father gave him a few words of advice,—­the clergyman silently pressed his hand, and blessed his death-bed.  Surely such blessings are not given in vain!”

Sydney Smith died on the 22nd of February 1845, and was buried by the side of his son Douglas in the Cemetery at Kensal Green.

[107] R.A.  Kinglake, quoted by Mr. Stuart Reid.

[108] The Beer-house Act, 1830, allowed any one to retail beer, on merely
    taking out an excise-licence.

[109] Frances Talbot, wife of John, 1st Earl of Morley.

[110] As a matter of fact he lived at 33 Charles Street, and subsequently
    at 56 Green Street.

[111] This intention gave rise to the “Oxford Movement.”  Keble thought that
    the time had come when “scoundrels must be called scoundrels.”  His
    Sermon on “National Apostasy” was preached on the 14th of July 1833.

[112] Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868).

[113] Born Sarah Taylor (1793-1867).

[114] At that period there were no sermons under the Dome

[115] In 1825, after a visit to Lord Essex at Cassiobury, he noted with
    disapproval—­“No hot luncheons.”

[116] (1798-1869), created Lord Taunton in 1859.

[117] This is interesting as being, so far as I know, Sydney Smith’s only
    reference to Lord Beaconsfield.

[118] Gladstone’s Gleanings, vol. vii. p. 220.

[119] Thomas Singleton (1783-1842), Canon of Worcester and Archdeacon of
    Northumberland.